Screen-printed electrodes: Transitioning the laboratory in-to-the field

This short article overviews the use of screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) in the field of electroanalysis and compares their application against traditional laboratory based analytical techniques. Electroanalysis coupled with SPEs can offer low-cost, precise, sensitive, rapid, quantitative information and laboratory equivalent results. The combined use of SPEs and electroanalysis reduces the need of sample transportation and preparation to a centralised laboratory allowing experimentalists to perform the measurements where they are needed the most. We first introduce the basic concepts and principles of analytical techniques to the reader, with particular attention to electroanalysis, and then discuss the application of SPEs to common analytical targets such as food, environmental, forensics, cancer biomarkers and pathogenic monitoring and sensing.